Agricultural Marketing Centre Ltd.

The purpose of the commercial and PR activity of the AMC is to promote and popularise the products of the Hungarian agricultural and food industry both at home and abroad. It is our fundamental task to promote high quality Hungarian foods branded by the ‘Excellent Hungarian Food' trade mark and increase their sales opportunities in the market.

Advertisement campaigns launched both in the electronic and written media of the given target area serve the efficient participation of manufacturers in foreign programmes supported by the AMC.

We intend to increase the popularity of Hungarian products, especially those branded with trademarks, with creating promotional materials and objects and distribute them during our sales campaigns.

In order to increase the popularity of Hungarian companies and enhance their business relations, we make a catalogue each time we participate in a foreign exhibition to introduce our companies, which represents a considerable marketing advantage for them.

The educational programmes in our collective marketing activity are targeted at agricultural manufacturers, as well as the leaders, marketing managers and proprietors of small and medium-size food industry enterprises.

The AMC lays a great emphasis on training the participants of the agricultural sector and providing them with all the information that is essential to stay competitive in the market. A close co-operation has been established with the experts of agricultural higher educational institutions, so the lectures in the training courses are given by college or university teachers.

Collective appearance at domestic and foreign exhibition is one of the most important marketing tools of our corporation. It is also very popular among manufacturers and supported companies.

The different exhibitions serve as trade meetings for the companies of different sectors; thus, the real composition of the market is represented with the presence of both the demand and the supply sides in these events, which also contributes to their popularity.

We wish to achieve an integrated "exhibition image" in the organisation of the collective stands. We try to present our products in a thematic order, so we create homogenous sections (such as honey, wine-growing regions, and types of meat etc.). A whole collective stand is devoted to the products that deserve it (‘Hungaricums", Excellent Hungarian Foods, wines etc.), if the main feature and size of the exhibition allows it.

The domestic agricultural exhibitions focus on both the traders of a certain area and the general public. In these exhibitions, the AMC builds a collective stand for small and medium-size enterprises, where they can show their products at a very low cost.

Quality Food from Hungary' Trademark
This trademark is an important device of collective marketing. As a mark of excellence, it signifies the outstanding, high quality of the product and it also draws the attention to the nationality and origin of the product.

The content of the Trademark:

• Certified excellent quality
• Marking the Hungarian origin of products in the market
• Creating a positive country image
• Protection of domestic manufacturers
• Informing consumers and protecting their interests
• The development of the economy and indirect quality development
• The development of general consumer culture

Guaranteed Traditional and Special Trademark
The Guaranteed Traditional and Special Trademark is used within the European Union, and considering our accession, the Ministry of Agriculture and Regional Development (FVM) issued Decree No.1/1998 (I.12.) specifying the conditions of using this trademark.

The Ministry entrusted the AMC with the operation of the Guaranteed Traditional and Special Trademark.

At present, there are altogether 11 protected traditional foods in the European Union, such as the Italian Mozzarella cheese or the Spanish Serrano ham. According to our experts, several of our 300 products collected in the framework of our ‘HÍR' programme have a good chance to obtain the right to apply for the use of this trademark.

Geographical product trademark
The guidelines concerning the protection of the geographical trademarks of agricultural and food products are set out in Government Decree No. 87/1998. (V.6.).

Product specifications are evaluated by the Hungarian Council for the Protection of Origin co-ordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture. In accordance with their decision, the Hungarian Patent Office carries out the listing of geographical trademarks.

The AMC contributes to the popularisation of the trademark with issuing brochures, promotional publications and also with its appearance in exhibitions.

Traditions-Tastes-Regions {Hagyományok-Ízek-Régiók (HÍR)} programme
The book entitled Traditions-Tastes-Regions (Hagyományok-Ízek-Régiók) published in 2002 was a great success in the market. We wish to continue and even broaden this programme in close co-operation with the competent bodies of the Ministry of Agriculture (FVM), the Hungarian Patent Office, the Hungarian Tourism Inc. and the National Association of Rural and Agricultural Tourism.

The Traditions-Tastes-Regions programme also operates in the European Union, within the framework of which more than 4000 products have been collected so far. The Hungarian ‘HÍR' programme can match the importance of similar French, Italian, Spanish and German collections. The material of the collection can be regarded as a part of the universal Hungarian culture, however, we believe that it will only become complete if the job of collecting products can be extended to the whole Carpathian Basin

We continuously organise domestic sales promotion presentations in the huge supermarket chains, restaurants, and individual sites - primarily from the products of the most important sectors.

Our foreign sales promotion activity is focused on several target groups:

• We invite our existing and potential partners for exhibitions where they can get familiar with and taste our products.
• We organise business meetings and negotiations for Hungarian producer companies and their foreign clients.
• We invite our important business partners and our experts escort them to the significant domestic exhibitions or to the sites of the Hungarian exporter companies belonging to different sectors.
• We organise on-site promotion campaigns to improve the popularisation and brand awareness of Hungarian products. We place POS and POP materials designating Hungarian products in the largest supermarkets, and arrange prize drawings during bigger promotion sales (eg. Hungarian Products' Week).
• Besides exhibitions, we arouse the consumers' interest in Hungarian products by organising individual Hungarian product presentations, business meetings and we maintain existing business relations as well.